Alcatel-Lucent Bulks Up Security in Its OS

Alcatel-Lucent's upgraded operating system brings greater security capabilities into the operating system that runs on its OmniSwitch family of LAN switches. The new OS includes integrated InfoExpress CyberGatekeeper endpoint security technology, as well as features that give IT administrators greater control over network access for employees and guests, and over nonauthenticated devices trying to get onto the network. The new Alcatel-Lucent Operating System 6.3.4 release also includes better network availability, performance and uptime capabilities.

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Alcatel-Lucent is rolling out an upgraded operating system designed to bring greater security and access control to its OmniSwitch family of LAN switches.

With the Alcatel-Lucent Operating System 6.3.4 release, the vendor is integrating the CyberGatekeeper technology from InfoExpress, which ensures that endpoints connecting to the enterprise network are checked for health and compliance with an organization's endpoint security policy.

In addition, the new OS release-announced April 15-also enables IT administrators to give employees and guests access to the network while still ensuring that corporate assets on the network are secure.

"IT departments want and need security solutions that are effective and easy to deploy," Michael Emelianoff, vice president of enterprise security solutions for Alcatel-Lucent, said in a statement.

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With the new features and the integration with InfoExpress' technology, enterprises will still be able to secure their corporate information while continuing to give employees access to such technologies as VOIP (voice over IP) and mobile applications, Emelianoff said.

InfoExpress' CyberGatekeeper Host Integrity Check Module not only checks on the health and compliance of connecting endpoints, but also sends noncompliant endpoint devices to a remediation network until they are brought up to compliance.

In addition, the new operating system release enables IT administrators to create easily defined user profiles that are mapped directly to network and security policies. With this capability, IT administrators can base users' profiles on the role an employee or guest has within the company and define access to the network, application and bandwidth.

It also offers a Web-based captive portal, which grabs packets for a nonauthenticated user and sends it to a predefined Web page that asks the user to provide authentication credentials before they're allowed onto the network.

In addition to the security features, the revised OS offers a host of new network availability, performance and uptime capabilities, including compliance with the ITU-T G.8032 standard for Ethernet Ring Protection, data path redundancy and recovery times of less than 50 milliseconds for Ethernet ring topologies, according to company officials.

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